Low German evening sells out auditorium

Whether it’s an attempt to preserve a culture or a sign that a culture has been preserved may be tough to say, but the fact that the second Low German evening within four months sold out again, shows that the culture is alive and well in Steinbach.

The Mennonite Heritage Village Auxiliary hosted this event on Feb. 20, selling out before the evening began with the 300-capacity crowd packing the MHV auditorium.

They arrived to hear the musical gifts of Heischraitje and Willa Honich, to listen to Low German readings, and stories and to laugh at jokes told in their native language.

Doris Penner, of the MHV auxiliary said Low German evenings were common in past years and have been hosted by a variety of organizers.

“I think that in years past it is kind of slowly fading away so we wanted to preserve it,” she said.

Newer immigrants who speak the language help bolster those for whom it may not be as fresh, she said.

“I think that there’s always been an interest, even though people don’t speak it at home, many of them can understand it,” she said. “They find it’s something they don’t want to lose.”

While it’s hard to define Low German humour, Penner said somehow it just works.

“I think for some reason it’s really easy to do humour in Low German,” she said. “It is a bit of a quirky language.”

But as anyone who has ever heard a Low German joke translated into English can attest, there’s something different about it.

“It’s a bit hard to say why it sounds funnier in Low German,” Penner mused. “I can’t quite get that myself.”

After the November show turned many people away, organizers decided that this show would basically be a repeat.

If they go ahead again next year, and while no commitments have been made Penner said this is a possibility, they will hope to offer new material.

That’s part of the tradition that has faded over time.

Penner said there were people like Wilmer Penner, now living in Winnipeg, who produced material specifically for this type of show.

“He wrote stuff, he translated and he was very bent on preserving the language,” she said. “He was the mover and the shaker behind putting on a lot of the Low German evenings.”

Others such as Anne Funk also come to mind for Penner.

Reaction from the audience was also very positive.

“I just felt such a good vibe in the auditorium,” she said. “No one seemed in a hurry to leave. I think people were just kind of prolonging the evening.”